Acheron (mission)/Walkthrough
Prologue In the prologue, your dropship comes in for a landing on the planet Acheron, where an artifact is known to be located. Acheron is covered by a single gigantic alien organism, which is being methodically killed by terreforming machines set up by the Izanagi Corporation. Your assignment is to gather intel only and avoid the Ghost Warriors who serve the Izanagi corporation as fanatical mercenaries. A Ghost Warrior on the surface is speaking to another about their plans to extract the artifact, which the alien organism is clutching possessively. They go down an elevator, down through a massive breathing tube into the interior of the organism. One other Ghost Warrior stays behind. As your dropship comes in for a landing, he spots it overhead and calls out to the other mercs in the area that an intruder has arrived. So much for gathering intel only. Walkthrough As soon as the mission begins, Ghost Warriors in the distance will be searching for you. If you stay where you are, you’ll soon be attacked at a distance by a Light Ghost Warrior. Since there’s little to no cover near your dropship, you may prefer to instead run forward to the yellow industrial vehicle fairly near to you, taking cover behind it. There is no boss enemy for this mission, so you can afford to use Rockets and Grenades from time to time against Medium or even Light Ghost Warriors. Just save some heavy weaponry for later when you start running into Heavy Ghost Warriors (which aren’t as enduring as Heavy Skaarj and not nearly as bad as the Heavy Araknid, but still worthy enemies). If you stay still, the Combat Assault Rifle is probably sufficient for fighting once an enemy attacks. The Magnum Pistol is another suitable alternative. If you run forward to get behind the yellow industrial vehicle, head left around it and when you get to the end of the vehicle you can jump up onto it. On the opposite side is a Light Ghost Warrior; once you’ve jumped onto the vehicle he’ll soon be in sight. Blast him with something that will ignite him and then finish him off. From there, no enemies will attack you until you come to them. Head forward further; a stack of crates will be your next decent source of cover, so move towards them. When you near the crate, 2 Light Ghost Warriors will begin to attack you. These are unusual ones, though; one is armed with a Grenade Launcher and Fragmentation Grenades and the other has a Rocket Launcher! Don’t panic when they start to fire; from this distance you can easily dodge their attacks. Keep track of where the Grenades are going and keep in mind they won’t explode on contact. When you kill these enemies a garage-like area will open up with more Ghost Warriors inside. Therefore you have a couple of options here. One option is to take them out from a distance, while they will be having serious trouble hitting you. The other option is to advance on them, dodging as you go, and kill them closer up so that when the garage opens you can be standing right there with Flamethrower in hand (or another devastating weapon). To fight them from a distance, use weapons that are impossible to dodge such as the Assault Rifle and the Magnum Pistol. Grenades fired with a tap of the trigger actually work pretty well too, if your aim is good enough. When you take them out you can then head up to the next yellow industrial vehicle, wind around it to the left and run into the now battle-ready Ghost Warriors in the garage-like area. If you run forward to meet the 2 Ghost Warriors they may switch to more standard weaponry or fall back a bit as you get close. Once you get near enough to them you can take them out with the Flamethrower, Shotgun altfire, Grenades or something else. Then head left of the yellow vehicle they were stationed at and have a Flamethrower, Shotgun or Grenade Launcher ready immediately for when the door of the little nook there opens. Once you clear that alcove out, enter it. There are health and energy recharging stations, which you can come back to later for additional charging (until they run out of health and energy to give). There’s also your first Rocket Launcher (except possibly the one off the body of the Ghost Warrior that fired Rockets at you), Rockets for it, Shotgun shells and Assault Rifle ammo. Leave the alcove heading left in the direction of a big rock, following the raised, grey path. In the distance, below you and to the right, you’ll see crates with several explosive barrels against them. Three Light Ghost Warriors will soon attack you, foolishly running past the crates and barrels. Needless to say, Assault Rifle fire at the barrels will do wonders for taking them out. More Rifle fire from up where you’re stationed will do well to finish off any survivors. Head down to them to grab their weapons, then back up to where you were. Continue following the raised, grey-colored path to the left of the alcove. Up ahead you’ll see a huge pit with steam coming out of it; a metal ring runs around its perimeter. Further up ahead, elevated over the pit, is a Drone Rocket Launcher. It’s difficult to spot; it has a greenish color, and can be most easily found at a distance by running your Assault Rifle’s targeting reticule around and looking for it to change. Maintain your distance and once you’ve found the Drone, raise the reticule as high up on the Drone as possible without it changing back to indicate there is no longer an enemy in front of it. Now switch to your Shock Lance, keeping the reticule in the exact same place. You should now be able to fire an EMP from your Shock Lance that will hit the Drone, and not hit the platform it’s on first. The EMP will do serious damage but not quite destroy it; either quickly fire Trigger 2 or fire, switch to your Assault Rifle and launch a Grenade with Trigger 2 to finish it off. Once the first attack hits it, the drone will fire back, but from this distance it’s very easy to dodge Rockets. Head forward to where the Rocket Drone was (or at least right under where it was). You’ll see a ladder heading up to the platform the Drone was on. Slowly head up. As soon as you get to the top there’ll be 2 Light Ghost Warriors waiting for you. You can climb up so that just the top of your body is peeking past the edge and it’ll offer you some cover. Have your Assault Rifle ready and fire with Trigger 1 so you don’t risk accidentally hitting the edge of the platform and reflecting a Grenade back at yourself. Once you put them down, head up further, onto the platform. From here you can head left or right. Start out by slowly heading left out looking out further up ahead for a Medium Ghost Warrior stationed on a crate holding a Rocket Launcher. If you can spot him from afar, you’ll be able to kill him before he can figure out where he’s being fired on from. A Rocket fired at him should work well, as would headshots from the Magnum Pistol or Assault Rifle. Once he’s down, head to the right. Assault Rifle ammo, Shotgun shells and a clip of Magnum bullets are nearby. You will run into another Ghost Warrior or two around here as you continue around to the right; close combat weapons will probably do you good. Eventually you’ll reach a health recharging station. Use it and check the crate right next to it. There’s a radio sitting there. Use the radio. You’ll have the option of two things to say, but don’t choose either one yet. It won’t matter what you say; after choosing one, you’ll get another choice and after replying to that troops will be sent up after you from beneath the surface of the planet. This is necessary since it will make the elevator they come up through available to you so you can descend to the interior. But there’s a trick here that can make things a little bit easier on you. Without choosing either radio option, start running back around the platform and then back down the ladder. If you don’t answer the radio, it will just sit there, potentially forever. This allows you to get into a position where you can ambush the team of Ghost Warriors coming up to attack you before you choose what to say. They’ll be coming from the huge breathing tube that you saw them go down at the beginning of the mission. Head down there, get up pretty close and arm yourself with your Flamethrower or Grenade Launcher with Incendiary Grenades. Then answer the radio twice, wait for the Ghost Warriors to come up, and light them up as soon as they do, before they can fire their weapons. Grab their weapons and energy, head onto the “elevator” platform they arrived on and begin your descent into the interior of the planet. Begin heading forward from the elevator and you’ll soon run into a plant on the ground with two writhing tendrils rising up out of it. There are several of these in the interior; they’re Killer Sprouts. They can’t be killed and they’re only dangerous if you step on them. Then they’ll grab you, hold you in place, and slowly drain away your life. If this happens, aim toward the ground and shoot at the Killer Sprout and eventually it will pull its tendrils inside of itself and let you go. Move around it and continue forward slowly through the fog. Look for a human-shaped silhouette in the distance. When you find one (the first enemy you’ll face down here), carefully aim and pop it with a burst of Magnum Pistol fire to kill the Ghost Warrior before it knows what’s happening (4 shots will do it). If your Pistol is out of ammo, use the Assault Rifle. Soon after he dies, another Light Ghost Warrior will start lobbing EMP Grenades at you. These can be serious trouble if one goes off near you; pay close attention to where they’re headed and avoid them. Return fire and kill the Ghost Warrior. Some time soon (it varies depending on how quickly you’re advancing) you will be attacked by a Heavy Ghost Warrior. Once you have to face the Heavy Ghost Warrior, make sure you’re somewhere where you have room to maneuver. Use Rockets or Toxic Gas Grenades; among the weapons that you have right now, those (and possibly the Magnum Pistol, if you have any ammo left) are ideal. Up a little further, you’ll reach a certain point where you can hear a commander sending a message to Ghost Warriors to hold their positions and let you come to them. The enemy will do so after that. Slowly advance just a little further, looking out for silhouettes. You should find one enemy stationed on a stalk growing out of the ground on the right side of the passage; waste him with your Assault Rifle or another weapon. Somewhere to his left another Light Ghost Warrior will be strafing left and right at ground level, looking to fire bursts from his Assault Rifle at you. Take him out too. Continue onwards. You’ll reach a point eventually where the path bends around a corner to the right. As soon as you start turning that corner a Light Ghost Warrior will fire on you and you’ll have no cover nearby. Neither will he, though; pop him with a Fragmentation Grenade or two; the Shotgun would work just fine also. Onwards from there, look out for some crates up ahead. As you approach them, another silhouette should become visible. Put him down with Assault Rifle fire, or whatever else you’re comfortable with. Next to the crates you’ll find 2 boxes of Assault Rifle ammo, some Rockets, 2 health pickups and an energy pickup. Grab it all and continue further. Past 2 huge, intertwined stalks and up ahead further is a huge, open area where your next encounter takes place. To the right is a Light Ghost Warrior standing on a stalk. Further past him is a Medium Ghost Warrior with a Rocket Launcher and a Light Ghost Warrior on a platform overhead “sniping” at anyone who comes near enough. Fire at the Light Ghost Warrior with your own Assault Rifle, taking advantage of his reluctance to retreat from his position to find some real cover or at least make himself a moving target. Once a rocket is fired at you, make the Rocket Launcher-carrying Ghost Warrior your top priority, using any heavy weapon you might have to take care of him. Those two should be your last Ghost Warriors to have to deal with. If you want to, you can get some more goodies by heading up to the platform where the Light Ghost Warrior was stationed. To do so, head to the far left of the open area and look for a gentle slope upwards. Follow it until it leads up to the platform and hop up onto that. Proceed over past the hole torn through it that you could drop down through and go to the side where the Light Ghost Warrior was. You’ll find around there boxes of Shotgun shells and health and energy recharge stations. Get all set up with that, then head back down and off to the far right of the huge area. Look under the platform area for a huge semi-circular glob of green ooze. Run over to the glob, which has three detonators set up on it. Run around it in a circle and activate all three detonators. Then step back a little bit and wait for them to go off. Green slime starts flying everywhere. As soon as it subsides, run into the center of that area and grab the artifact. Having blown open the green secretion that Acheron’s organism formed around the artifact in its interior and having grabbed the artifact, the organism is infuriated. An animal groan can be heard all throughout its interior as its natural defenses kick in. Floating spores are released into the interior and slime starts spraying from its inner walls. The Ghost Warriors panic, screaming for all their men to head topside and evacuate immediately. Turn around and begin retracing your steps back to the elevator you took down to the interior. You’ll run into a few new hazards along the way. Mindless floating spores abound now, moving towards you and exploding on contact. An infinite supply of them will be continually created. The explosions do almost no damage, though; they’re little more than a nuisance. At full health and full energy on Medium difficulty it would take three or four hundred of them at the least to kill you. Rifle fire can pop the spores before they can reach you, so when it’s reasonably convenient, fire at them as you continue on. Slime spraying from the walls does more damage, draining your health away slowly. This should be a higher priority to avoid. Also, pools of slime on the ground drain health away just as quickly, so you’ll be forced to head around them. Don’t forget about the Killer Sprouts, either; they’re more of a problem now then they were before. Keep heading forward, and don’t panic; the risk level here is actually pretty low despite the sensational atmosphere. When you get to the elevator, take it up to the surface and start heading back to the dropship you started the mission at. There are a couple new hazards up here… green gas clouds and slime spraying from holes in the surface… but they’re not difficult to get around at all. A warning, though: Stay on regular paths that you had traveled through or near to earlier in the level. I’ve tried to avoid trouble by going back to the dropship in weird directions before, including along the edges of the level. Arm yourself with a Grenade or Rocket Launcher or another formidable long-range weapon before you reach your ship. When it comes into sight, one last Ghost Warrior will be at its side, kicking it and shouting to be let in. Decimate him from a distance and he’ll get no chance to fire back. Head over right up next to the dropship and the mission is complete. Quick Level Completion Difficulty Differences Tips and tricks * This is the level where you will get a Rocket Launcher for the first time. * This is where you get to try the 'Grace' which Aida gave you prior to the mission. Really powerful, but extremely scarce on ammo. Use it wisely. * The Alt Fire from the Shock Lance can fry the auto turrets. However, they are slow and rather inaccurate from a distance. * There will be plenty of ammo available for the Combat Assault Rifle. Use it to nail the enemies from a moderate distance. * The Izanagi troopers mean serious business. So take them down on the very first sight of them. Do not fool around. * The slain troopers will provide a shield boost, as indicated by a blue glow. Pick them ASAP. * Once the artifact is collected, do not wait to shoot down the alien lifeforms. Run instead. External links and references